I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the July issue of QST, and
the published results of the ARRL 10 Meter Contest. My claimed score of
286,936 points, was enough to finish as #1 US Low Power CW Only score (by
about 95,000 points!) ... my first ever #1 National finish! Imagine my
dismay, when I discovered my #1 Low Power CW Score was not even listed. I
had sent my logs to the ARRL via e-mail, and received confirmation that my
logs had been received. What happened?
What's most disturbing, is that I am not the only one this has happened
to. Our Contest Club President, had his score omitted last year, and this
year, most notably, the scores of K1TO (claimed #1 US Single Op Low Power
Mixed Mode) and W4AN (claimed #1 US Multi-Operator), among others, were
also missing from the results.
As W4AN stated on the "CQ-Contest" Internet Reflector, a small score
correction buried somewhere in a future issue of QST is unacceptable,
especially considering the number of logs and the several #1 scores that
are missing. The current published results are not correct, and there
would be several changes at the top positions, which should be publicly
acknowledged, as well as an explanation to those whose scores were
omitted. A complete reprint of the correct results, for many, is the only
way to rectify this situation. There are other common errors that occur in
the contest results, including stations listed in the wrong ARRL Section,
or wrong operating class, which are also unacceptable.
If the Contest Branch cannot properly handle the submission of e-mail logs,
please discontinue the use of e-mail as an acceptable means of submitting
logs. We submit logs electronically to make it easier for the Contest
Branch to do the log checking, but at what price? I will be sending all
future ARRL Contest logs in on paper, although this is no guarantee that
they will not be lost as well.
A reasonable explanation on how this can happen, with an organization like
the ARRL, would be welcome. Everyone is overworked and overwhelmed at
times, but the number of missing scores, indicates a serious problem.
Major errors such as this should not occur.
I sincerely hope these errors can be corrected ... if not for this contest,
then for all future contests. We put in a lot of time and effort to
compete in contests, and would like to see the rewards of our hard work,
even if it's only the thrill of seeing our callsign and score correctly
listed in a magazine.
Ron Wetjen, WD4AHZ
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